Punakaiki and Reefton

PUNAKAIKI
Composed of limestone that forms the cliffs and nearby valleys have been sculpted into pancake like layers by sea and wind. The remnants survive as narrow ridges and pillars, the softer layers are eroded out leaving harder layers looking like a stack of pancakes. Sea water has also eroded large caves beneath the limestone headland, fractures in the limestone connect the caves to the surface and when waves crash into the caves, air is compressed and erupts out of the blowhole along with salt water and spray. In rough weather thunderous booms and rumbles as the sea rushes in and out of the caves below.

This area of limestone is part of a sheet between 20 and 30 million years old that extends into the surrounding hills where it forms spectacular cliffs. Limestone is a sedimentary rock, consists mainly of tiny marine fossils. Highly soluble in rain water, rain water also highly acidic seeps into cracks in the limestone and erodes into caves and pocket with sinkholes. CASTIFICATION (after an area between Italy and Slovenia) large rivers disappear underground, hidden in this case by the thick rainforest of Paparoa National Park.

REEFTON

The town owes its origins to the discovery of gold bearing quartz reefs in the locality in the late 1860s when the gold rush fever hit the West Coast.
The town itself became established about 1870 and immediately became an entrepreneurial and prosperous place.
With mining came technology and innovation, and in August 1888 Reefton became the first place in New Zealand and the Southern Hemisphere to have a public supply of electricity, even before the fashionable suburbs of London and New York.

SATORIAL STYLE AT THE BEARDED MINERS HUT
Bringing history further to life are the Bearded Mining Company at the Miners Hut. This replica hut depicting 1860s style housing is made of native cedar slabs and set amongst native plantings right in the heart of town on Broadway.
Gavin, Peter and Geoff are 'in residence' all year, and welcome visitors in to learn how a miner lived in the 19th century when the promise of gold lured thousands of prospectors to the area.
Here we were treated to Billy Tea and scones for "smoko" or morning tea.

Gradually the little town of Reeftom reveals its story, via a few of the original inhabitants.